So What Happened?

I mentioned a little over a week ago that I was FINALLY taking away Baby Girl's pacifier after allowing her to have it a bit too long.  Thank you to everyone who commented or emailed me regarding suggestions on how to make the process easier for her.  I decided to try the Pacifier Fairy since that seemed to work for a lot of people and Baby Girl is a sucker for Cinderella.  I threw out the pacifiers, placed a Cinderella doll in front of her bedroom door and hoped for the best.

I would love to say that it worked like a charm and she never asked for the pacifier again, but that wasn't the case.  It worked for a couple hours before she decided that she did not want the doll, she wants her pacifier back and the fairy was mean to take it.  I obviously could not have the pacifier reappear so we had to keep going with it.  

Over the next week she continued to ask for her pacifier but the amount of times she asked became few and far between.  FINALLY, this past weekend, I only heard her ask for it ONCE.  She is sleeping fine, doesn't mention the mean fairy anymore and I think, has finally given up.  

At the same time, I figured that if she was already working through losing the pacifier, we should rip the bandaid off and get her potty trained too.  If she was going to be crazy for a while I would rather have it all at once.  So, I also took the diaper away a week ago Sunday and we have not gone back.  The best surprise here is that it took only a day for Baby Girl to be potty trained.  I still have to remind her sometimes to go use the restroom but we are officially done with diapers too.  

Pacifiers and diapers, farewell.

And with that, my Baby Girl suddenly stopped being a baby and suddenly became a girl.  It is really strange to me that we have moved out of the baby stage for good in our family and I no longer need to run to Costco to pick up diapers or search through bags for the missing pacifier.  I have been doing this for 8 1/2 years!  

Am I sad about leaving this phase?  Nope.  Not at all.  I am actually excited about the next.  We spent the weekend in the mountains (photos will come soon) and it was strange how light the packing was.  And we did not have to race home for a nap while having fun.  And no changing diapers standing up in a dirty stall!  This is all incredibly new to me and though there are going to be moments that I miss the baby stage, I have to admit, this next step already seems pretty great.